Visual Arts News

Our Art Rooms have continued to buzz with creativity throughout Term 2! Now in Week 8, students have been developing their artistic skills, exploring a range of techniques, and building confidence in expressing their unique ideas. It has been wonderful to see their imagination, effort, and enthusiasm shine through in their artwork.

We are proud of the progress students have made so far and look forward to sharing more of their colourful creations and artistic achievements as the year continues.

Here’s a glimpse of what we have been working on this term...

Prep

Students explored a range of artistic skills by creating clay caterpillars inspired by familiar storybooks and painting underwater ocean scenes. They practised manipulating and joining clay to form shapes and characters, while also developing their painting techniques through the use of brushstrokes, colour, and detail to create ocean backgrounds featuring seaweed, shells, and sea life. 

Grade 1

This term, students explored Māori-inspired art by creating vibrant koru paintings and developing their painting skills through the use of colour, shading, and pattern. They also learned basic clay sculpting techniques to create pinch pot fish, shaping clay with their hands, adding detailed features, and painting their finished artworks. These projects encouraged creativity while building students' confidence with a range of artistic techniques and materials.

Grade 2

Students explored a variety of painting and drawing techniques while creating imaginative magic doors and botanical artworks inspired by a featured artist. They developed their understanding of colour selection, used shapes to create flowers and leaves, and practised applying paint carefully to represent different elements. Students also reflected on how the artist inspired their work and demonstrated creativity through their artistic choices.

Grade 3

This term, students explored a variety of artistic techniques and materials while creating textured geode artworks and Indigenous-inspired bush medicine leaf collages. They experimented with colour, texture, and layering using paper, markers, glitter, and watercolours to represent crystallised rock formations. Students also investigated the significance of colour in Indigenous Australian history, selecting warm or cool colour palettes and arranging their leaves to create a sense of movement, as if blowing in the breeze.

Grade 4

Students are learning to design creative settings for their clay food artworks, using colour, shape, and decoration to bring their ideas to life and explain their design choices. They are also exploring mixed media techniques to create layered landscapes, using warm and cool colours, paint techniques for backgrounds, and torn paper to add texture and dimension such as trees and water.

Grade 5

Students explored how to use visual conventions inspired by famous artists to create their own interpretive artworks, focusing on the effective use of bright, contrasting colours for both the main subject and background. They also developed their understanding of shape and colour by designing cityscape scenes, drawing buildings using a variety of shapes, adding detailed features such as windows and doors, and using patterns to enhance their work. Their compositions were further strengthened by dividing the page into two sections using warm and cool colour outlines.

Grade 6

Students have been working on a three-week project adapting their designs from paper to vase forms, focusing on using the correct amount of newspaper and PVA glue, staying as close as possible to their original designs, and experimenting with a wide variety of colours. They will now begin the next stage of the project by adding patterns using acrylic paints to further develop and refine their final pieces.